fast and curious

Curious 52, Week 17: Ein maß bitte

After graduating from college my best friend and I went backpacking through Europe for a month. One of my favorite parts was the time we spent in Munich, Germany. I loved everything about it; the sausage, the beer gardens, the people. However, the only german I knew was the phrase "Ein maß bitte" which served me well enough at the time. Yet I feel that my time there would have been even more enjoyable had I been able to speak German.

Here I am 5 years later, longing to return to Munich. On my next trip I am determined to arrive with the ability to speak the local language. It's at this point that I turned to the german instructional videos on Curious by Meister Lehnsherr. I breezed through his alphabet and pronunciation and soon found myself working on Introductions and Goodbyes.

What I like most about the lessons is that the teacher pauses and repeats each new word and phrase to give you a chance to practice it. At the end of the lesson he pretends to have a conversation with you. He asks you questions and pauses for a brief moment to give you a chance to answer. This was an excellent way to review what I had just learned, however, I still wanted to practice my new found skills on a real person.

With my previous travel mate a few hundred miles away and my fiancé unwilling to go on camera, I was left with my dog Stella. Now, Stella is a good old dog, but her pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. Not to worry though. With a little help from My Talking Pet, Stella was just as good at German as I was.

Check out my project submission on Curious to see our conversation and give us feedback on our pronunciation.